MKBHD continues to slowly try to repair the Panels app

Do you like really cool wallpapers for your phone? Of course you do. Everyone does it. That’s why it seems like such an easy market to serve and why it was such a shock when Marques Brownlee – MKBHD – tripped over himself with the launch of the Panels app. Despite the YouTuber’s popularity, much of the internet quickly turned against him when he released his wallpaper app called Panels, which required an unnecessary amount of permissions while also requiring absurdly high subscription costs.

Brownlee made the right move by responding calmly to the criticism and listening to what fans had to say. He released a 15-minute video detailing what he wanted to change and improve to address these concerns.

Brownlee says the app was always meant to be free, and he’s right. There are many places to download wallpapers, and almost none of them cost much. Panels may have attractive wallpaper, but they have to be more than just aesthetically pleasing to command such a high price. Now the free panel tier loads with 1080p wallpapers, but without the annoying ads from before. And if you want a higher resolution version of a wallpaper displayed there, you can unlock it by watching an ad.

Of course, if you want to avoid ads altogether (like most of us), you can sign up for Panel’s new subscription tier: just $2 per month. You can also purchase individual wallpaper collections from artists for a one-time payment, or unlock them all for your use when you sign up for the original $12 monthly/$50 annually plan.

Now on to the permissions – these are reportedly being corrected, and the initially extensive scope was due to Brownlee and the Panels team providing incorrect information to the App Store.

The biggest takeaway from this whole debacle is that Brownlee really listens to his fans. At a time when every decision depends on the dollar, that’s good to know.